Steven Hayward has an article in the post-election “Now What” edition of National Review,behind a subscriber firewall. He included the lede in a post at Powerline, which is worth consideration:

Conservatives are natural pessimists, based on a realism about fallible human nature that fuels our opposition to the coercive utopianism of the Left. The Founders shared this pessimism about human nature and the weakness of democracy, and kept it at the forefront of their minds as they designed our political institutions: “If men were angels,” and all that. But the conservative pessimism after the GOP’s poor showing in this election is overdone. The Republican party and the conservative movement were said to be finished after Barry Goldwater’s landslide loss in 1964, and again in 1976, when the aftermath of Watergate and Jimmy Carter’s narrow presidential win installed Democratic supermajorities in both houses of Congress. In 1977, voters who identified with the Republican party fell to an all-time low of 21 percent.

What has surprised me is the number of angry lefties calling in to Conservative talk shows, furious that Republicans are not wallowing enough in their defeat, and not giving up and just quitting our repugnant habit of disagreeing with them.

If you start looking for it, you will find a common rage among Democrats that we have the gall to disagree with them. It’s very odd, but I suspect it is because they have no answers to our arguments, and that makes them even angrier. A “Win at All Costs” goal may get you across the finish line, but it doesn’t offer much in the good government line.

Like this:

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I’ve noticed this on any number of sites, and some of my liberal friends are much the same in person. I usually just try to explain that yes, we lost, but we’ll just try harder next time, and in the meantime we’ll do our best to mitigate the damage that the Democrat policies will do. If I try to leave it at that they all get angry, almost as if I have no RIGHT to be optimistic about the Republican party, and even angrier when I tell them I do not believe in changing any of my principles simply because the “other guy” won.

I agree that it’s a manifestation of insecurity, but it is kind of interesting to watch.

Perhaps Charles Krauthammer could give an answer that uses all sorts of psychiatric terms to make it sound more impressive, but the bottom line (in my opinion) is that liberals are insane, thus no rational behavior should be expected. After all, those who voted for Obama and company are willing, even eager, to relinquish their freedom for what the perceive as security. Someone has promised to take care of them. Give them “free” food. Give them “free” healthcare. Provide “free” abortions and contraceptives. Well, you get the drift.

People (and I mean nominally adult people) who buy into this fantasy are stuck at a mental age where they still believe in Santa and Tinkerbell.

Unfortunately, the adults who have a mental age commensurate with their chronological age are stuck with the bill from Barack Claus to try to provide all these things.

It is a puzzlement. I think you have several categories. The completely liberal hate conservatives so much that they listen only to liberal sources, like MSBNBC where they are told daily that Conservatives are racist and mean. They regard Fox News with horror, and simply have no idea what Conservatives are like. You have the low-information voters, who simply pay no attention to politics, mostly ignore then news (I don’t mean unintelligent, just uninformed) who are easily swayed with simple messages like “War on Women.”You also have the slightly-informed who pride themselves on being “independent” think the two parties are just alike and hate both, but Republicans a little more.

The election was won because for liberals it is a case of win at all costs, while Conservatives are trying to explain a complicated message (give a short course in civics and history). This election began when Obama was inaugurated last time with (1)the”Big Lie” technique — if you repeat endlessly that the financial crisis was Bush’s fault, I’ve created 4.5 million jobs, the economy is recovering but it just takes more time, etc. (2) Total negative campaign. Romney is uncaring rich man, killed this guy’s wife, wants to take away your contraceptives and ban abortions, mean to his dog, sends jobs to China etc. (3) Agit-prop campaign. See Dan Henninger’s Barack Obama’s Persuasion Army (4)Vote Fraud. Lots of it where it mattered.